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Impossible Things
''Impossible Things'' is a collection of short stories by Connie Willis, first published in january 1994, that includes tales of ecological disaster, humorous satire, tragedy, and satirical alternate realities. Its genres range from comedy to tragedy to horror. Three of the stories are Nebula Award winners, and two of these also won Hugo Awards. Like her novel ''Bellwether'', the stories ''In the Late Cretaceous'' and ''At the Rialto'' explore aspects of scientific research. Like ''All Seated on the Ground'', the story ''Spice Pogrom'' involves first contact with an intelligent alien species. Like the two-part novel ''Blackout/All Clear'', the story ''Jack'' involves life during The Blitz. The stories ''Ado'' and ''Winter's Tale'' both refer to William Shakespeare, while ''Time Out'', like her time travel novels, explores the nature of time. Contents * " The Last of the Winnebagos" (1988) (Hugo and Nebula Award winner) * "Even the Queen" (1992) (Hugo and Nebula Award winner) * "S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
First Contact (science Fiction)
First contact is a common science fiction theme about the first meeting between humans and extraterrestrial life, or of any sentient species' first encounter with another one, given they are from different planets or natural satellites. The theme allows writers to explore such topics such as xenophobia, transcendentalism, and basic linguistics by adapting the anthropological topic of first contact to extraterrestrial cultures. Overview Murray Leinster's 1945 novelette " First Contact" established the term "first contact" in science fiction, although the theme had appeared earlier. Its roots lie in colonial narratives from the Age of Discovery onward. Of many variations of the trope, one may recognize the subclasses of the actual interstellar meeting of two civilizations and the "message from space" one.Science Fiction After 1900: From the Steam Man to the Stars, by Brooks Landonp. 81/ref> Notable examples 1890s: * 1897: ''The War of the Worlds'' by H. G. Wells 190 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Science Fiction Short Story Collections
Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for scientific reasoning is tens of thousands of years old. The earliest written records in the history of science come from Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia in around 3000 to 1200 BCE. Their contributions to mathematics, astronomy, and medicine entered and shaped Greek natural philosophy of classical antiquity, whereby formal attempts were made to provide explanations of events in the physical world based on natural causes. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, knowledge of Greek conceptions of the world deteriorated in Western Europe during the early centuries (400 to 1000 CE) of the Middle Ages, but was preserved in the Muslim world during the Islamic Golden Age and later by the efforts of Byzantine Greek scholars who brought Greek m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1994 Short Story Collections
File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which sank in the Baltic Sea; Nelson Mandela casts his vote in the 1994 South African general election, in which he was elected South Africa's first president, and which effectively brought Apartheid to an end; NAFTA, which was signed in 1992, comes into effect in Canada, the United States, and Mexico; The first passenger rail service to utilize the newly-opened Channel tunnel; The 1994 FIFA World Cup is held in the United States; Skulls from the Rwandan genocide, in which over half a million Tutsi people were massacred by Hutus., 300x300px, thumb rect 0 0 200 200 1994 Winter Olympics rect 200 0 400 200 Northridge earthquake rect 400 0 600 200 Sinking of the MS Estonia rect 0 200 300 400 Rwandan genocide rect 300 200 600 400 Nelson Mandela rect 0 400 200 600 1994 FIFA World ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Even The Queen
"Even the Queen" is a science fiction short story by Connie Willis, exploring the long-term cultural effects of scientific control of menstruation. It was originally published in 1992 in ''Asimov's Science Fiction'', and appears in Willis' short-story collection '' Impossible Things'' (1994) and ''The Best of Connie Willis'' (2013), as well as in the audio-book ''Even the Queen and Other Short Stories'' (1996). Synopsis Three generations of women discuss the decision of one of their daughters to join the "Cyclists", a group of traditionalist women who have chosen to menstruate even though scientific breakthroughs (in particular, a substance called "ammenerol") have made this unnecessary. The title refers to the fact that "even the Queen" (of the United Kingdom) menstruated. Reception "Even the Queen" won the 1993 Hugo Award for Best Short Story. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Last Of The Winnebagos
"The Last of the Winnebagos" is a short story written by American writer Connie Willis. It was first published in ''Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine'' in 1988, and reprinted in the short story collections '' Impossible Things'' (1994) and ''The Best of Connie Willis'' (2013). Plot synopsis The story, set in Arizona, takes place in a dystopian future where a pandemic called newparvo (a virulent strain of canine parvovirus) has killed all the dog The dog (''Canis familiaris'' or ''Canis lupus familiaris'') is a domesticated descendant of the wolf. Also called the domestic dog, it is derived from the extinct Pleistocene wolf, and the modern wolf is the dog's nearest living relative. Do ...s. In the wake of this disaster the Humane Society, referred to somewhat ominously as "the Society", has been given enormous powers within the government. The story's main character, photojournalist David McCombe, is haunted because despite being a professional photographer, none of th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Time Travel
Time travel is the concept of movement between certain points in time, analogous to movement between different points in space by an object or a person, typically with the use of a hypothetical device known as a time machine. Time travel is a widely recognized concept in philosophy and fiction, particularly science fiction. The idea of a time machine was popularized by H. G. Wells' 1895 novel ''The Time Machine''. It is uncertain if time travel to the past is physically possible, and such travel, if at all feasible, may give rise to questions of causality. Forward time travel, outside the usual sense of the perception of time, is an extensively observed phenomenon and well-understood within the framework of special relativity and general relativity. However, making one body advance or delay more than a few milliseconds compared to another body is not feasible with current technology. As for backward time travel, it is possible to find solutions in general relativity that a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the " Bard of Avon" (or simply "the Bard"). His extant works, including collaborations, consist of some 39 plays, 154 sonnets, three long narrative poems, and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. He remains arguably the most influential writer in the English language, and his works continue to be studied and reinterpreted. Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Sometime between 1585 and 1592, he began a successful career in London as an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Blitz
The Blitz was a German bombing campaign against the United Kingdom in 1940 and 1941, during the Second World War. The term was first used by the British press and originated from the term , the German word meaning 'lightning war'. The Germans conducted mass air attacks against industrial targets, towns, and cities, beginning with raids on London towards the end of the Battle of Britain in 1940 (a battle for daylight air superiority between the Luftwaffe and the Royal Air Force over the United Kingdom). By September 1940, the Luftwaffe had lost the Battle of Britain and the German air fleets () were ordered to attack London, to draw RAF Fighter Command into a battle of annihilation.Price 1990, p. 12. Adolf Hitler and Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring, commander-in-chief of the Luftwaffe, ordered the new policy on 6 September 1940. From 7 September 1940, London was systematically bombed by the Luftwaffe for 56 of the following 57 days and nights. Most notable was a large d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blackout/All Clear
''Blackout'' and ''All Clear'' are the two volumes that constitute a 2010 science fiction novel by American author Connie Willis. ''Blackout'' was published February 2, 2010 by Spectra. The second part, the conclusion ''All Clear'', was released as a separate book on October 19, 2010. The diptych won the 2010 Nebula Award for Best Novel, the 2011 Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel, and the 2011 Hugo Award for Best Novel. These two volumes are the most recent of four books and a short story that Willis has written involving time travel from Oxford during the mid-21st century, all of which won multiple awards. Plot introduction Willis imagines a near future (first introduced in her 1982 story " Fire Watch" and featured in two of her previous novels: ''Doomsday Book'' and ''To Say Nothing of the Dog'') in which historians conduct field work by traveling into the past as observers. The research is mainly conducted at the University of Oxford in England in the mid-21st cen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
All Seated On The Ground
All Seated on the Ground is a science fiction novella by American writer Connie Willis, originally published in the December 2007 issue of American magazine ''Asimov's Science Fiction ''and as a standalone volume from Subterranean Press. It won the 2008 Hugo Award for Best Novella. Plot summary The story follows Meg, a newspaper columnist who has joined a commission studying aliens that have landed on the University of Denver The University of Denver (DU) is a private research university in Denver, Colorado. Founded in 1864, it is the oldest independent private university in the Rocky Mountain Region of the United States. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Univ ... campus. The aliens glare at everyone, and allow themselves to be led to various locations, but the commission has no idea how to communicate with them. Following an incident at a local mall during the Christmas shopping season, Meg and a school choir director team up to try to decipher the aliens' actions be ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Short Stories
A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest types of literature and has existed in the form of legends, mythic tales, folk tales, fairy tales, tall tales, fables and anecdotes in various ancient communities around the world. The modern short story developed in the early 19th century. Definition The short story is a crafted form in its own right. Short stories make use of plot, resonance, and other dynamic components as in a novel, but typically to a lesser degree. While the short story is largely distinct from the novel A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itsel ... or novell ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
